Groups suing the state over redistricting have reached a settlement with the law firm hired by lawmakers to help draw legislative and congressional maps, according to documents filed in court Wednesday. Terms of the deal were not made public. Whether there will be any further action in the case remained unclear Wednesday. Every 10 years, states must redraw legislative and congressional maps to account for population changes. Republicans controlled all of state government in 2011 and were able to draw maps that helped their party.
A group of Democrats and the immigrant rights organization Voces de la Frontera sued over the maps, and a panel of three federal judges last year found two Assembly districts on Milwaukee’s south side violated the voting rights of Latinos.
The court redrew those districts but left the rest of the GOP-friendly map in place.
The litigation continued, however, because the plaintiffs identified documents that the state should have turned over to them but did not. They sought sanctions in August against Michael Best & Friedrich, the law firm that helped the Republicans.
Full Article: Settlement reached in lawsuit over state’s redistricting records.